Cu and Ni minerals that have great economic value mostly exist in the form of sulfides, making them difficult to extract using hydrometallurgical processes. Currently, heap leaching is the most economical way to extract these metals from low grade ores. Copper recoveries of many chalcocite heap leaches report around 70% copper recovery. However, the chalcocite […]

Since energy is the major concern in current and future mining operations, energy efficient technologies are a major focus for research and development. The CAHM machine was developed based on principals of energy efficient particle breakage by compression. The machine design was based on computer simulation and modeling results indicate the potential to reduce comminution […]

This project will combine filtration characterization and advanced 3D imaging and modelling of material structures to find ways to improve the recovery of process water from difficult-to-treat tailings that are the by-product of mining and mineral processing. This process is called solid-liquid separation and it is a critical area for the reduction of oil sands […]

Recently at one of its mines, the partner has experienced a period of unprecedented production. Through its automated production data gathering systems, huge volumes of data are generated on a moment by moment basis at the mine. The goal of this project is to see whether data from this period hold an understanding of the […]

Over the past 25 years researchers at the UBC Geophysical Inversion Facility (GIF) have generated forward modelling and inversion codes that deal with most types of data of interest to a consortium of mining companies. This proposal moves the research to applications in their corporate environments, and to advance the tools and understanding about how […]

One of the major issues facing potash mining in Saskatchewan is the potential for water to enter the mine from water-bearing rocks above mining operations. Rocks near-mine are normally considered dry and low risk. However, under some conditions, in localized areas, there is the potential for unsaturated water to have been introduced into the rock […]

Aluminium smelter are energy intensive and not particularly energy efficient, as most of the energy required to produce aluminium is lost along the production line. This is the reason why it is mandatory to perform a detailed analysis of the thermal wastes produced in these factories. The main objective of this project is to investigate […]

Goldcorp recently announced a new initiative referred to as H2zero with the goal of reducing water usage in their mining operations by 80 to 100%. Mineral processing and specifically comminution and mineral separation are the main consumers of water. This research focuses on dry comminution technologies and represents a first step towards advancing dry comminution […]

Electrochemical corrosion is the most common source of plant downtime in the Chemical Processing Industries (CPI); in the Province of Saskatchewan, the Mining Industry plays a very significant role in CPI. Mineral processing plants handle electrolytic and abrasive materials that can cause very significant structural damage due to electrochemical corrosion and wear. The objective of […]

The conventional way of treating silver ore is using cyanide during leaching process, also called cyanidation. Due to the inherent toxicity of cyanide and the potential hazard toward human and environment, cyanidation has raised more public concerns in our society. More and more regions have strict regulations or prohibition on using cyanide. An alternative leaching […]

Les mines à ciel ouvert produisent une importante quantité de rejets accumulés sur le site minier en période d?exploitation. Une fois les activités de la mine terminées, le site doit être restauré de manière à ne plus générer de contamination et à être remis dans un état visuellement acceptable. Afin d?assurer une restauration efficace des […]

The proposed research is aimed at both understanding and improving the flotation equipment design through the development and application of comprehensive multiphysics platform, which has the potential to create more accurate, fundamental basis for modeling, optimization, and scale-up of industrial flotation processes, based on physics rather than empirics and intuition. The objective of this research […]